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Why aren’t the major news outlets here covering this more??? Unbelievable.

I know! I got up 1st thing this morning to hear the latest on the news. Nothing for the longest time (30-45 minutes?). I heard again about the girl that was kicked out of her prom because her dress was risque. So what, many thousands of people died overnight and they kept harping about the prom dress.

Finally right before I started to head to work, I picked up just a snippet on one of the stations. Just a one or two linger. Had to be Fox or HNN. Fox was just full of fluff this morning.

Quake Town Threatened By Cracking Dam

Updated:16:53, Wednesday May 14, 2008

Chinese troops have rushed to plug “extremely dangerous” cracks in a dam wall, upriver from the earthquake-devastated town of Dujiangyan.

The state-run news agency Xinhua said that 2,000 troops had been sent to work on the Zipingku Dam in Sichuan province.

Speaking from Dujiangyan, Sky’s China correspondent Peter Sharp said many local people seemed unaware of the threat.

“It (the dam) is only five kilometres away, we are downstream of it,” he said.

“We understand that some of the People’s Liberation Army troops that are deployed here helping with the rescue operation... 2,000 of them [have been moved] upriver to seal some serious cracks in the dam wall.”

In a separate report, Xinhua said Dujiangyan would be “swamped” if there was major problems at the dam.

~SNIP~ (8 page article at link)

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1315944,00.html

30,000 missing or out of reach in one single Chinese city after earthquake

2008-05-14 23:56:18

CHENGDU, May 14 (Xinhua) — More than 30,000 people were missing or out of reach in the quake-hit Shifang City, as the death toll climbed above 2,500, according to the local government.

About 238 students were buried, and 147 were missing, according to the latest update posted at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on the government website (www.shifang.gov.cn).

More than 10,000 people have been injured, and the total loss was estimated to be 40 billion yuan, it said.

An official surnamed Zou in the city government publicity department told Xinhua that some of the missing people were miners in small towns.

Shifang came under focus when the earthquake destroyed two chemical plant in the Yinghua town and caused the leakage of 80 tonnes of ammonia, forcing more than 6,000 people to evacuate.

Zou said the leak has been capped, and no one had died because of it.

About 1,000 troops have been parachuted into the area for the rescue, and about 10,000 people are staying in government shelters.

The city has a population of about 430,000 people.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/14/content_8172607.htm

China Says Troops Rushing to Plug Cracks in Zipingpu Dam

Last Edited: Wednesday, 14 May 2008, 12:44 PM EDT
Created: Wednesday, 14 May 2008, 8:16 AM EDT

By AUDRA ANG
Associated Press Writer

HANWANG, China — Thousands of Chinese soldiers rushed on Wednesday to repair a dam badly cracked by the country’s massive earthquake, while rescuers arrived for the first time in the epicenter of the disaster.
China’s top economic planning body said that the quake had damaged 391 mostly small dams. It left “extremely dangerous” cracks in the Zipingpu Dam upriver from the earthquake-hit city of Dujiangyan and some 2,000 soldiers were sent to repair the damage, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Xinhua said Dujiangyan would be “swamped” if major problems emerged at the dam.

He Biao, the director of the Aba Disaster Relief headquarters in northern Sichuan province, said there were also concerns over dams closer to the epicenter.

“Currently, the most dangerous problems are several reservoirs near Wenchuan,” he said, according to a transcript on the CCTV Web site.

“There are already serious problems with the Tulong Reservoir on the Min River. It may collapse. If that happens, it would affect several power plants below and be extremely dangerous,” he said.

~SNIP~ (more at link)
http://www.myfoxboston.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6537128&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.4.1